In this episode of STXY on the Road, I visit the Korean War Martyrs' Cemetery in Shenyang, the resting place of many of the soldiers who fought in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.

Walking through the cemetery, it quickly becomes clear that these are not just abstract heroes from history books, but real people from mostly humble origins. Among the hundreds of thousands who fought in the war, a few names have become especially well known in China, not because their lives were more valuable than the others, but because their stories came to symbolize the courage and sacrifice of an entire generation.

In this episode, I tell the stories of five of the most famous heroes of the Chinese People's Volunteers: Huang Jiguang, Sun Zhanyuan, Yang Gensi, Qiu Shaoyun, and Yang Liandi. Their actions on the battlefield became legendary in China and remain part of the country's collective memory of the war.

At the back of the memorial park stands a modern monument inscribed with the words "Long Live Peace," surrounded by a black stone wall engraved with the names of more than 174,000 Chinese volunteers who lost their lives in Korea. Among the names is Mao Anying, the eldest son of Chairman Mao Zedong, who was killed in an air raid early in the war.

The episode also touches on the continuing effort to honor the fallen, including the repatriation of Chinese soldiers' remains from South Korea, where they are received with full military honors before being laid to rest in China.